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Problem: Less than a third of the nation's fourth grade children meet standards for proficiency in reading, and the gap between the best and worst readers is getting wider.   Between 1992 and 2002, the overall reading performance of the nation's fourth graders did not improve significantly.
Source: Schemo, "Students' Scores Rise in Math, Not Reading," New York Times, Nov. 14, 2003, citing U.S. Department of Education, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report (2001):

"Elementary and middle school children have continued a decade of progress on a nationally administered math test, with all groups showing gains in every state. But reading scores remained essentially flat in most of the country, according to test results released here on Thursday. . . . The results released on Thursday came from a test given in February to a national sample of 686,000 students at 13,600 schools in all 50 states. . . ."

"In reading, the results were far less encouraging than in math. Unlike the math results, where scores along each level of achievement rose, reading scores have remained fairly stagnant since 1992. The share of students considered proficient in reading rose to 32 percent, from 29 percent, among both fourth and eighth graders, and the increases in the share of children with basic skills rose only modestly."

"Nor was there any real narrowing of the gap in reading ability between whites, blacks and Latinos at either the fourth or the eighth grades. Among whites, 41 percent were proficient in reading in both grades, up from 35 percent in 1992. Among black students, only 13 percent in both grades were proficient readers, up from 8 percent of fourth graders, and 9 percent of eighth graders, in 1992. About 15 percent of Latino fourth and eighth graders were proficient in reading, up from 12 and 13 percent in 1992 respectively."

Sources:   Fletcher, "Test Shows Wider Gap in Reading Skills," Washington Post, April 7, 2001, p. A2, citing U.S. Department of Education, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report (2001):

"The results released [April 6, 2001] showed that 37 percent of American fourth-graders perform below the basic level [in reading]. Another 31 percent read at the basic level, meaning they demonstrated an understanding of the overall meaning of what they read. Twenty-four percent were proficient, which meant that they not only understood what they read but could draw inferences from written material. And 8 percent of American fourth graders performed at the advanced level. . ."

"Higher performing students have made progress: scores at the 75th and 90th percentiles in 2000 were significantly higher [in 2000] than 1992. In contrast, the score at the 10th percentile in 2000 was significantly lower than 1992."

"Education Secretary Secretary Roderick R. Paige cited the new data as evidence that federal education policy has not adequately addressed the needs of low-achieving students."

"Often referred to as the nation's report card, the NAEP results are widely viewed as a reliable measure of educational achievement."

Source: Ave, "The direct approach: Two Hillsborough schools try a new way to teach reading. Some ask: Why not more?" St. Petersburg Times, May 7, 2001:

"In Hillsborough [Tampa, FL], the debate is about a phonics-based approach known as direct instruction, with the school district on one side and a community group on the other. Reluctant to change as overall reading scores have climbed, the district prefers its own mixed philosophy of teaching reading using a combination of whole language and phonics. But with 13 of the 104 elementary schools in Hillsborough last year receiving D's from the Department of Education and state money available for direct instruction, members of the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality, or HOPE, want to know why it's not being tried at more schools. The activist group of churches wonders why Hillsborough has spent only $60,648 of a $920,720 state grant that expires June 30, 2002."

"Research shows the method, known formally as Direct Instructional System for Teaching and Remediation, can be effective in teaching children to read, especially those from poor households. By the same token, a panel of experts with the National Research Council noted in 1998, after two years of study, that beginning readers should be taught using both methods."

"In Hillsborough there is a reluctance to embrace direct instruction,
despite $7.25-milion made available last year to the state's poorest performing elementary schools to use the method. Administrators point to their preferred method of reading instruction, which they call 'balanced literacy,' used at schools such as Dunbar Elementary."

"Between 1997 and 2000, second-grade reading scores on the Stanford Achievement Test increased from a percentile rank of 50 to 56, considered above average. 'That's why principals are so hesitant to stop what they're doing and go in another direction,' said Joyce Haines, Hillsborough's general director of elementary schools."

"But not all schools are improving. Reading scores at 45 schools, many of them with large numbers of minority students, dropped between 1999 and 2000."

"'We want the kids to learn to read,' said HOPE's Sharon Streater. 'There are at least 18 schools in this district, second-graders, where 60 to 80 percent of children are not reading to grade level. We should have every tool available, and this is an excellent tool.'"

Source: "Knowledge Gap Widens," USA Today, April 12, 2001, p. 12A:

"The roots of the reading problems, identified by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the National Education Goals Panel can be traced back to the unsettled reading wars that raged for years among educators. Eventually, reading experts attempted to paper over bitter arguments over whole-language instruction . . . vs. phonics . . . They settled on a 'balanced' approach. But the best reading research in the country done at the National Institutes of Health, concluded otherwise."

"NIH researchers found that teaching reading requires an exact sequence of building word skills through sound bits -- not the simple 'balance' too many teachers have been taught is OK. Most in need of this approach are poor children with slipping reading skills."

Solutions:   For information about various reading programs demonstrated to be of value for children at risk, see the following sites:

Institute on Beginning Reading, University of Oregon, College of Education, Institute on Educational Achievement, IBR Presentations

Project Excel/Success by Eight, Fairfax County, VA: See Seymour, "Time Well Spent, Schools Say: Fairfax Educators Find Longer Hours Get Results," Washington Post, November 26, 2001, A1, A20: "The strategy [providing children with more time the classroom] is paying off at Westlawn, which made the greatest gains on the school system's annual index of test results. Westlawn jumped 14 points in one year on the index comprising the Virginia Standards of Learning tests and the Stanford 9 exam. Another elementary school, Hybla Valley in the Alexandria section of Fairfax, also increased 14 points.) The two schools are part of the county's three-year-old Project Excel program, which gives more resources to the 20 lowest-performing elementary schools. They offer full-day kindergarten and required every child to attend school for an additional 2 1/2 hours a week. [The program is aimed at schools with students] "who don't speak English fluently, come from impoverished backgrounds or have other special needs. . . . In addition to the 20 Project Excel schools, 14 other low-performing elementary schools designated "Success by Eight" schools, also offer full-day kindergarten. And five schools, including three Project Excel and one Success by Eight school, operate on a year-round calendar, with students attending classes for nine weeks followed by three weeks off, beginning each July and ending each June. . . . Overall, 17 of the 20 Project Excel schools improved on the SOLs, and 13 met or exceeded their goals on the student achievement index. Off the 14 Success by Eight schools, nine gained on the SOLs, and 10 improved on the achievement index. Of the five year-round schools, all but one [which was gutted by fire in mid-year] made great gains. . ." Note: at Westlawn School, for example, the percent passing the SOL grade 5 reading test increased by 22 percent, from "52 percent" to "74 percent."

"All-Day Kindergarten Posts Big Gains in Montgomery," Washington Post, October 1, 2002, A1, A11:

- "An intensive and expensive all-day kindergarten program in Montgomery county [MD] has produced significant gains for poor children and helped them begin to catch up with higher-performing peers, a new study to be released today shows. In tracking the reading progress made by 16,000 youngsters over two years in kindergarten and first grade, the report found that not only did achievement rise for all students involved in the program in high-poverty schools, but low-income students showed bigger gains. Further, the report found that both poor and middle-class students in high-poverty schools--contrary to expectation--either matched or outperformed their peers in schools elsewhere in the county . . ." (A1)
- "The most significant exception was for children who do not speak English, a finding that has prompted Superintendent Jerry D. Weast to pledge intensive phonics instruction at schools with the most children living in poverty." (A1)
- "Montgomery's 'kindergarten initiative' combines the longer day with smaller class sizes, a revised curriculum and additional teacher training." (A1)
- "[T]he report found that the gap between higher-scoring white and Asian students and their African-American and Latino peers had narrowed by as much as 11 points on some measures. . . . In the 17 highest-poverty schools, 51 percent of the children considered poor enough to qualify for a federal lunch subsidy met reading benchmarks by the end of the first grade, and only 45 percent of poor children elsewhere in the county did. Despite the progress, officials said the gap still exists. Nearly 70 percent of the middle-class students in those schools met the same benchmark--about the same levels as their peers in other county schools." (A11)
- "The most troubling finding, Weast said, was for the limited English speakers, whose reading scores actually dipped slightly over the two years. And some of their scores on a test last spring of oral language, hearing and associating sounds with letters were lower by half than their English-speaking classmates. Weast today will announce plans to introduce intensive phonics instruction in 18 schools that receive federal Title I funding for low-income students, the first such instruction ever in Montgomery county." (A11)
- "Research has found that if a kindergartener meets foundational benchmarks --such as recognizing letters and the sounds they represent and identifying simple words--they will be on track to read text by the end of the first grade and able to read fluently by the end of third. Scientists have found that if children do not read fluently by then, many never will. 'We believe that is the key to academic rigor as they go up the grades,' Weast said. 'Reading.'" (A11)

Source: Reeves, "Prince George's Test Scores Show Best Gains Ever: 34% of County Schools Meet U.S. Benchmark," Washington Post, May 8, 2001, p. A1, A14:

- "According to the results [on a key standardized test used to gauge how local children measure up to their peers nationally], 34 percent of county schools had median test scores at or above the national average this school year, compared with 21 percent last year. Of the schools tested, . . . 62 percent, registered significant gains. Results also show a slight narrowing of the achievement gap between black and white students and between Hispanic and white students . . ." (A1)

- "System-wide, Prince George's scores increased at each of the three grade levels and in every content area of the March test. For example, the rate of students scoring above the national average in reading rose from 24 percent last year to 36 percent. In math, it more than doubled, from 16.7 percent to 42.4 percent." (A14)
- "Until this year, Prince George's scores [ranked as second worst system in the state] have been low, flat and far from the national norm. School officials attributed the gains to the reforms that [the superintendent] has demanded. For example, she has required all schools to give students in the early grades 120 minutes of uninterrupted reading time and 90 minutes of math a day. She has also reduced class sizes in the lower grades, and efforts are underway to remove disruptive students from classrooms. [The superintendent] and principals have also put more emphasis on training teachers." (A14)

[more to come]

For more information about:

the results of the NIH reading studies referred to in the USA Today editorial quoted above, see National Reading Panel, "Teaching Children to Read" (April 2000)

the problem of adult Illiteracy in America,

how public schools are failing our children in mathematics and science.

the problem of students dropping out of the educational system before completing high school.

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